Take a trip into the underworld with our new collection of Eastern European gangster films. From folkloric smugglers to crooked cops, femmes fatales to shotgun weddings, these three titles capture the criminal spirit with stylistic flair and hard-nosed energy.

Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir (2022) is a Ukrainian thriller shot through with paganistic energy and visual intensity that reimagines the smuggler as a folklore hero. Romanian New Wave icon Corneliu Porumboiu heads for the Canaries in The Whistlers (2019), a postmodern neo-noir concoction that blends absurdism with sharp political bite. And we tip our hat to the classics with Black Cat, White Cat (1998), Emir Kusturica’s madcap ensemble comedy of small-time crime and thwarted romance that plays out to a turbocharged Balkan soundtrack.